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It’s Hump Day again boys and girls and it’s time to get truckin’, if you know what I mean. If you’re not sure, these lewd, crude blues will surely get you into gear.

Ah, truckin’, the age old rhyming slang for its f-word counterpart – and I don’t mean fruckin’. Blind Boy Fuller referred to truckin’ in a few songs including “Truckin’ Little Baby” and “Truckin’ My Blues Away.” He liked to have some truckin’ fun! “Truckin’ My Blues Away” also gave rise to another song of his called “What’s That Smells Like Fish Mama” and you can all guess what it is. SPOILER ALERT! It rhymes with “sprunt.”

A few years after “Truckin’ Little Baby,” Big Bill Broonzy pulled a Led Zeppelin (or is it the other way around?) and came up with “Truckin’ Little Mama” albeit with somewhat different lyrics. Blind Boy Fuller’s influence reached far into the 20th Century and beyond. Hot Tuna regularly played a version of “Truckin’ My Blues Away” they called “Keep On Truckin’.” Blind Boy Fuller is widely credited as the originator of the phrase “keep on truckin'” so his reach is far beyond the musical realm. Nowadays, the term seems to mean “keep going” or “carry on” and the intercourse angle has been put to bed. It’s a truckin’ shame.

Big Bill Broonzy has had a major influence on music of the 20th Century and beyond as well. He was a huge influence on Muddy Waters who in turn revolutionized Blues, Rock & Roll, and even popular music, of every era since. In early 80’s southern California the Alvin brothers put together a band called The Blasters which was greatly influenced by Big Bill Broonzy. Dave and Phil Alvin have rekindled their musical relationship and released a tribute to Big Bill Broonzy (our review of it can be found here). Today we have a video from their recent tour doing a truckin’ great version of “Truckin’ Little Woman.”

If all goes well you’ll find yourself a truckin’ little woman for Hump Day who hopefully doesn’t have anything that smells like fish. if you are a truckin’ little woman, keep your cabin clean and keep on truckin’. For our final entry (that sounds dirty) we have a tune I found that doesn’t really fit in except that Kokomo Arnold seems to be happy to engage a Sissy Man if he can’t find a lady. So, if you can’t find a truckin’ little woman, maybe try a sissy man. Good luck with all that…

There’s a famous story Mike Bloomfield used to tell about his natural confusion when he heard the Hoochie Coochie Man Muddy Waters proclaim his love for sucking cock. What young Mike didn’t realize was that the term “cock,” in early 20th Century southern black communities, referred to female genitalia. Mike was probably thinking of the what they called the “cock opener.” The term seems to have popped up from the verb “to cock,” which a lot of 17th Century English colonists used to refer to intercourse. As their slaves learned English, they of course learned the slang along with it. 150 years later, Muddy Waters is regaling his young white acolyte with tales of sucking cock. Thus we erect this week’s Hump Day installment. We dedicate the following blues licks to the ladies.

Louise Johnson was Charley Patton’s girlfriend and a barrelhouse pianist. At one point, Louise went with Charley, Son House, and Willie Brown to Grafton, Wisconsin to make records for Paramount. During those sessions, she cut her total recorded legacy: four sides. One of those four sides was a celebration of “cocking it on the wall” which was slang for sex against a wall outside a juke joint.

Her song “On The Wall” has this stanza:

Well, I’m goin’ to Memphis, stop at Church’s HallI’m gonna show you women how to cock it on the wallI’m goin’ to Memphis, stop at Church’s HallI’m goin’ to show them womens, honey, how to cock it on a wall

Sometime in the mid 50’s, The Clovers, who brought you “Love Potion #9,” recorded a parody of Dixieland jazz standard “Darktown Strutters’ Ball.” They called their version “Rotten Cocksucker’s Ball.” We may never know if they meant it like Muddy, but it sure seems like it. I really hope they had a good time, they seemed to be looking forward to it.

Lastly, we have The Rolling Stones final kiss off to their record label Decca at a time the Stones wanted to start their own label. Decca was demanding a final song and the band was being bratty and indignant. The Stones turned in a low-key, mostly boring tune called “Cocksucker Blues.” Decca refused to release it and realized they weren’t getting a marketable song so they let the band go.

Hey, they got their name from a Muddy Waters tune and named a song after one of his favorite activities. It had to be included.

Time’s running out on Hump Day but it’s not too late for some black snake moaning. Black snakes crawling, black snakes creeping, and crawling king snakes everywhere. The snake, the serpent, the biblical slithering source of sin – it turns up often in blues and it’s offering fruit from the tree of carnal knowledge. “Black Snake Blues” by Victoria Spivey is the first known recorded reference to the Black Snake metaphor. Victoria recorded the song in 1926 for Okeh. It is thought that Blind Lemon Jefferson wrote his “Black Snake Moan” in response to Spivey’s tune. Response songs were common in the early days of recorded music. If a song became popular, others tried to capitalize by recording an answer song. This is a trend that continues today, for instance, 50 Cent recorded “21 Questions” and then Lil’ Mo recorded “21 Answers.” Also, all throughout the history of blues, but especially in the early days, musicians would capitalize on the popularity of a song by re-writing in slightly and issuing it. So, once the Black Snake was unleashed it started turning up in dark places everywhere.

One of the most famous uses of the snake in blues is John Lee Hooker’s “Crawling King Snake.” The Hook recorded several versions and so have a myriad of other artists including The Doors. Jim Morrison was considered a major sex symbol in the late sixties and he knew how to supercharge the music with sexuality. He, and The Doors brought the danger, mystery, and sexuality of blues into their apocalyptic rock music.

So today we have Victoria Spivey’s tune that started it all, Jefferson’s answer song, The Hook rocking out with Foghat and Paul Butterfield as he asserts his dominance, and some rare footage of The Doors recording John Lee’s classic. Maybe next time we’ll feature David Coverdale singing about his Whitesnake. Maybe not…

I recently had the opportunity to attend one of Teeny Tucker’s “Women In The Blues” presentations and it was quite informative and entertaining. I had never heard of Alberta Hunter and Teeny showed a video of the rediscovered, 82 year old blues singer. She was spunky, slyly humorous, winked at the audience, and sang about how her castle’s always rockin’. Even at 82, you believed it was true. Then, over this past weekend I was listening to B.B. King’s Bluesville on Sirius/XM and who comes on but Alberta Hunter with another bawdy tune – “You Can’t Tell The Difference After Dark.” Always being on the lookout for Blues filth, I made a mental note. Fast forward to Hump Day. This is a great opportunity to introduce you to Alberta Hunter, if like me, you never heard of her. I also included a Teeny Tucker song at the end, however, it is not bawdy. I just wanted you to hear her too if you have not.

On the subject of Women Of The Blues, many people don’t realize Blues was very much a woman’s domain in the early days. Researchers looking for info on Charley Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson, and many other prominent males, have often found that the women were remembered by more people and in greater detail. Women were also recorded earlier. In fact, Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues” is widely regarded as the first blues recording and was made on August 10, 1920. So how does this relate to Hump Day? You may have noticed most of the risque tunes are sung by women. It’s not that the women were more sexually charged than men, although they may have been (wink wink nudge nudge), but the women were making more records in general. Maybe the men were just tired from shaking ashes, greasing griddles, chopping meat, and trimming the lawn, if you know what I mean…

Alberta Hunter You Can’t Tell The Difference After Dark

Alberta Hunter My Handy Man Live – 1981

Alberta Hunter Two-Fisted Double-Jointed Rough And Ready Man

And here’s a sample of Teeny Tucker, taken from her performance at Sun Studios for their Sessions series.

It’s Hump Day and that means blues. Low down, dirty, grinding blues. I’ve read that the bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin’ and apparently a lot of blues musicians have heard the same thing. For decades, bluesmen have been chubby-chasing and lusting after big-legged women. Even Leadbelly sang about loving a big fat woman.

Chick Willis was famous for his risque song “Stoop Down Baby” and his ribald lyrics have permeated his work all throughout his career. The one we picked for Hump Day is “I Want A Big Fat Woman.” There’s no double-entendre there. It’s quite clear. Bring on the heavy weights and get it on!

According to his website, Bob Corritore is “considered among the top traditional blues harmonica players on the scene today. Additionally he is the owner of the Rhythm Room, the radio show host of “Those Lowdown Blues” on KJZZ, the founder of Southwest Musical Arts Foundation, the editor and main writer of the Bob Corritore Blues Newsletter, an official endorser of Hohner harmonicas, a Keeping The Blues Alive award recipient, a grammy nominated harmonica player and producer, an honorary member of Collectif Des Radios Blues, and a great fan of, and active participant in blues music in general.” And he also wants a big fat mama.

Smokin’ Joe Kubek & Bnois King have made our Hump Day list before with “My Space Or Yours.” Bnois has an eye for the ladies and he likes a healthy, healthy mama. Not surprisingly it comes from an album called “Roadhouse Research.” I’m betting Bnois wasn’t just sampling the menus and beer on tap.

Hump day, hump day, hump day! Step right up folks, but keep quiet and low down. We’re waitin’ til your man is gone, sneaking around back, and making a special delivery. I’d say we’ll be your back door man but I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong idea, if you know what I mean.

This week the tunes aren’t as naughty as usual but the characters involved certainly are. What we have are some tunes about sneaking around, covering multiple perspectives. Poor Albert Collins wondering who ate the steak attached to bones left on the dirty dishes, Buddy Guy letting his woman know that her sneaking around back fired, and Mr. Rick Estrin realizing he’s just another conquest of a woman sneaking around on her fiancee during the Blues Cruise. Oh, how wicked the women are in the world of blues. They’re as fickle as can be. The whole lot of them are immoral tarts and we love them. And so does everyone else apparently…

I don’t know how it happened but this week’s Hump Day theme turned into “tight.” Maybe it’s the tight schedule I’ve been on lately. Maybe by socks are too tight.

Tampa Red has been featured here before. I’ll give you a nickel if you remember what song. Hey, a nickel could buy you a lot of sin in 1928! You supply the Time Machine. This time Red is paired with Georgia Tom, aka Thomas Dorsey, the father of black gospel music. I didn’t realize there was white gospel music – I think it’s referred to as Christian Rock. Long before either though, Tampa Red & Georgia Tom teamed up for some bawdy blues. Can you picture St. Peter at the gates of Heaven humming “It’s Tight Like That” when he saw Georgia Tom in line? Mr. Dorsey was probably sweating that one.

Next up is Barrel House Annie with a song loosely related to our topic. “If It Don’t Fit, Don’t Force It” is good advice for any situation, especially a tight one. Hell it worked for OJ when everybody thought he was sincerely, irrevocably fu… Shut your mouth!

As a bonus we’ve got a modern version of the Sippie Wallace classic “Mighty Tight Woman” featuring young Bonnie Raitt performing on a Philadelphia radio show in 1972. She was touring to promote the Give It Up album. There’s a dirty joke in there somewhere. I’ll let you write it.

That’s it for Hump Day this week. I hope you enjoy this feature. Please comment here or on Facebook or Twitter. Say hello or share some of your favorite dirty blues. On Twitter, search for #thatsoundsdirty and you’ll find some of our other risque blues tweets. Have fun everyone!

Who’s hungry? I must be thinking about food today so what he have for your Hump Day Blues is some good old-fashioned musical food porn. Food metaphors for sex have been used in songs since Edison recorded Bell singing to Watson about his long white bologna (this may or may not be true – no evidence exists). Spread out some cabbage, bananas, sugar, honey, jelly, wieners, peaches, lemons, pies, hot dogs, custards, rolls, buns, and more and you’ve got a salacious smorgasbord. I’m surprised there’s no blues song about kumquats. That word even looks dirty. It sounds filthy and it’s probably, ripe, sweet and juicy waiting for you to take a bite.

First we have Lil Johnson looking for her Hot Dog Man. It sounds more like Lil Johnson was looking for Big Johnson, if you know what I mean.

Royal Southern Brotherhood is a recent band carrying the hokum flag forward with a song from their first album. Cyril Neville wants some of that sweet jelly donut but she ain’t sharin’, even after he took her to see Dr. John at Tipitina’s. Maybe he should try a Chocolate Angel instead.

Lastly we have the voluptuous and vivacious Candye Kane inviting you to eat it all night long. Her buffet offers large portions and the biggest jugs of milk around. Drink up boys.

We’re halfway through another week and it’s time for some bawdy amusement once again. Today we have a pair of Tampa Red tunes – “Let Me Play With Your Poodle” and “She Wants To Sell My Monkey.”

Tampa Red may seem like an animal lover but he was probably a real animal lover wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Early blues songs often substituted animal metaphors for sex acts and private parts. Red may want to play with something involving the short curlies but it most definitely wasn’t your dog.

You don’t just sell the Mayor of Bluesville’s monkey.

“She Wants To Sell My Monkey” again substitutes an animal for private parts. At the time, the phrase was commonly known as a term for prostitution, as a woman selling the monkey was instead selling, or renting her genitals. In this Tampa Red song, that monkey has been promised to him but she wants to sell it. In this version, B.B. King finds out his monkey is on the market and he’s not too happy.

Bnois needs a folder for his uploads.

Our bonus tune for the holiday week comes courtesy of Smokin’ Joe Kubek & Bnois King. “My Space Or Yours” is Bnois’ ode to hooking up in the modern age. Bnois is a man adept at word play and he uses all the jargon to weave his tale of tails. This tune is definitely not for the Spam folder. Double click it baby, just like that…

Greetings and salutations Biscuiteers! It’s hump day again and this time we’re gettin’ really down and dirty with Lucille Bogan and Blind Boy Fuller.

Our Lucille Bogan selection was suggested by the king of the cigar box guitars himself, Mr. Shane Speal. We blame him for this NSFW entry that could teach 2 Live Crew a few things about filth. The Washington Wives of the 1980’s would have hated Ms. Bogan and not just because she was black. Tipper Gore would have run screaming to Blackie Lawless for a hug after she heard this one. Tipper probably wouldn’t like “Sloppy Drunk Blues” or “B.D. Woman’s Blues” either. In case you’re wondering, B.D. stands for Bull Dyke. The Washington Wives would probably choke on that one too.

Lucille Bogan – “Shave ’em Dry”

Blind Boy Fuller was well known for his hokum (double entendre) tunes, including “I Want Some Of Your Pie” which surely inspired Led Zeppelin’s “Custard Pie.” This Blind Boy Fuller tune isn’t as overtly dirty as Lucille Bogan’s “Shave ’em Dry” and given his Blind Boy status he can be forgiven if he said “Hello ladies” as passed the fish market that morning.